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Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Monday, February 3, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court repeatedly has sided with defenders of the Second Amendment, ruling that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to bear arms and that states cannot unreasonably restrict that right.

Now, in a related move, U.S senators have proposed a law to establish that the right to bear arms cannot be restricted by political boundaries. The bill would establish that a permit to carry a concealed weapon in one state is valid in all states that allow concealed-carry.Mississippi Republican Sens. Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran recently signed on as co-sponsors of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2014.

The bill, they explain, “is intended to defend the 2nd Amendment rights of individuals with conceal carry permits, allowing them to carry those privileges from their home state to other states that also have conceal carry laws.”

“Second Amendment rights shouldn’t stop at the state line,” Cochran said. “It makes sense to allow law-abiding gun owners to take their concealed permit privileges with them to states that also allow conceal carry permits.”

Wicker said he is “strongly committed to upholding Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” "This legislation would ensure this right is not limited to the state where the concealed carry permit was issued,” he said. “It responsibly grants legal gun owners the same freedom in states with concealed carry laws.”

Erich Pratt of Gun Owners of America told WND Cochran has the key to the argument.
“Your right to self-defense doesn’t stop once you leave your home. It doesn’t stop when you hit your state border,” he said.

A reciprocity bill “would enable citizens who are able to carry in their home state travel out of state as well [with] their right to protect themselves,” he said.

Pratt not only argues what’s legal in one state should be be legal in another, his group opposes any kind of gun registration because of the danger that information will be misused. He cited the proposal that names of gun owners, or those who hold concealed carry permits, should be publicized.

The issue arose just a day ago when Civitas Media, which owns 88 newspapers in 12 states, discussed in an internal email a plan to create a state-by-state database of people who have concealed carry permits.

The company later announced that the plan has been proposed but was discussed and then vetoed.
“A poorly crafted internal memo meant to highlight editorial discussions and planning incorrectly indicated that such a database was being planned; it was been considered and rejected,” said a statement from CEO Michael C. Bush.

WND also previously reported that police officers themselves essentially are telling citizens they are on their own if an attacker confronts them in their home.
Project Veritas investigators spoke with police officers from North Carolina to New York who told them the unfortunate truth about the time it takes to respond to calls for help and what citizens can do until officers arrive.

Pratt told WND he’s constantly concerned by the argument that reducing restrictions for Americans to be armed will allow criminals to have guns.

“Hello!” he said, “Criminals already are carrying guns.”

Second Amendment Foundation founder Alan Gottlieb recently told WND individuals and families “should not be deprived of the right to defend themselves.”

“What other constitutional right is confined to one’s house?” he asked. “The Second Amendment was never meant to be encumbered with such a limitation, and it cannot possibly be interpreted that way, but it will take a Supreme Court ruling to convince lower courts and anti-gunners, and put this debate to rest.”

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.